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Regional lighting knowledge

Albany, Great Southern region 11th August 2011

Today I am the guest of the Great Southern region, Mount Barker in the morning, Albany in the afternoon and evening. Albany is about 1 hour flight south of Perth. I am invited to present my expertise and knowledge on sports lighting to both the shires at their montly group meeting as well as to a light forum in the evening that will see all major sports clubs and associations present, basically the ocal community. It is a great opportunity to share and communicate directly with the local government (the owners of the facilities) and the end users of the sports facilities.

Most of them have pratically no knowledge when it comes to lighting and having someone lead them through the considerations, pitfalls, does and don’ts of sports lighting was a real eye-opener. It turns out that most of them (as is probably the case in most regional situations) rely heavily on input from local suppliers and contractors when it comes to lighting. Their advice is obviously biased and limited as not many seem actually aware of good practice and applicable lighting standards, being more driven by sales for their own products.

We live our lightig designers lifes mostly in sophisticated environments (at least our practice), with big knowledgable developpers or city authorities, but out here in the country-side the reality of life is different. The scale and sophistication (and budgets) are of totally different magnitude, but not less important! Down here it’s a small community and the scrutiny on how tax payers’ money is spent plays a very imporatnt role. Hence the challenge to do a good job on a regional level, such as here in the Australian country-side, is nearly greater then the high end sophisticated projects. A happy community is important as every one knows everyone around here!

In Light Watch today an eye for local sports facilities such as the Albany Hockey Turf Club. While the current lighting is considered as being “high-end” for this region, the facility faces still many issues such as lamp failure, maintenance, lighting uniformity, glare, user control and so on. It is not the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground for the non initiated) but certainly carries a high local importance to the sporting community and should therefore be treated with similar attention.